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First Try! I Made Hurmašice!
I’m so excited, y’all — Hurmašice has been one of my favorite desserts for over TEN YEARS now, and I finally got up the guts to try to make them. And they were good.
Hurmašice is a light, oval-shaped cake that’s soaked in homemade syrup. You’ll find various recipes for this in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and across the Middle East, as well as a few other places!
Back in the United States, in Northern Indiana where I started my marriage with my husband and spent time with his state-side family, I first had Hurmašice when his stepmother made them. They were bright yellow with a whole walnut pressed into the middle, and they were absolutely seeping with honey-lemon sugar syrup.
The second time I had them, they were even more delicious, because they weren’t quite so drenched in syrup, but they were still soft and incredibly moist. That’s when I realized my “saturation preference” when it comes to these delicious little cakes — and it’s a preference you’ll discover for yourself.
The recipe that I came up with keeps the Hurmašice light and fluffy when they come out of the oven (which seems to be a rarity, according to most of the renditions I’ve tried), and though they’re thoroughly saturated with homemade syrup, they aren’t dripping when you pick them up, and the pan isn’t also full of liquid that has seeped back out of them (which is a definite possibility, depending on how much syrup you demand they soak up in the beginning).
Now! For the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the recipe.
Light and Fluffy Hurmašice
For the Cakes:
- 3 eggs
- 3 TBS (tablespoons) of white, granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup oil (I used sunflower because it was available, but I would normally use vegetable)
- 1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature to soften, or slightly warm)
- 2 TBS of unflavored yogurt (I used drinkable yogurt, in the same amount)
- 1 (12 grams or 3 teaspoons) package of baking powder
- 1 (10 grams or 2.5…
